Creative Ideas for the Exam Classroom

FCE

CAE

CPE

Paul Abbottpabbottuk@gmail.com

Ideas for writing:

-raising awareness of what 'good' writing is-

-getting students to copy that

-focus on article, review writing, essay writing

Look at these samples of authentic texts:

-What devices have the writers used to generate interest?

“Who is it?” screamed the Brighton Pride audience. The early

evening sky in Preston Park was rose gold as Britney Spears

laughed, swished her ponytail and lip-synced the opening line

of her dark dance banger Gimme More, which a few glitter-

decked revellers wore emblazoned on T-shirts today: “It’s

Britney, bitch.”

Owen Myres, The Guardian

It is a grey January morning in a gym near Leicester and

Madeley, a former TV presenter turned personal trainer and Instagram phenomenon - and the daughter of daytime telly pairing Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan - is trying gamely to teach me the correct posture for squats with weights. Bum stuck out, shoulders pinned back, move from the hips. None of this is dignified. It is also killing my hamstrings, although there is only a wimpy 5kg weight on the bar I am lifting, compared with the 60kg she usually manages.

Is Strong the New Skinny, Gabby Hinsliff, The Guardian

She sings. She sparkles. And she’s made by women paid just

1p for each doll that shimmers off shop shelves.

This Christmas, tens of thousands of children the world over

will excitedly tear the wrapping paper off an Ariel doll -

Disney’s Little Mermaid - secure in the knowledge that it was

made for them by Santa’s happy elves at the north pole.

Gethin Chamberlain, The Guardian

-‘setting a scene’- describing a scene

-speaking to the reader/questions

-repetition

-rhythm/ symmetry

-punctuation

-sentence length

Using a ‘scene’ in a review/article:

-Helping students to be ‘creative’

-Scaffolding by breaking down the task

-Using prompt questions to generate ideas

How to do it:

-consider the topic of the article task (here, spoiled children)-think of an example/a situation which can illustrate this- what is it?

-Paint a picture To do this it might help to imagine a scene like in a film where your example is taking place. To help you form a picture, think about questions like these:-Who is involved? What is their name(s)? How old are they? What do they look like?

- What are they doing at this moment? How are they feeling?(important to remember*- present continuous is usually used to give a sense of immediacy, and make a description more ‘real’ )

Punctuation is Power

Rhodri Marsden, The Times, 2012

From CAE Expert, Pearson

to be perfectly honest this seems to be a prime time for lies mistruths and pants on fire we have to navigate fake news constantly while dodging conspiracy theorists antivaxxers and misleading anti-abortion activists on social media just last week for example the Washington Post calculated that Donald Trump had told his 10,000th lie while in office and what about the rest of us how many of our #livingmybestlife Instagram posts are to put it charitably putting a positive spin on things

FCE review task:

-Reading each other’s work

-Recognising ‘effect on reader’

-Using ‘chain-writing’

Templates

CPE Essay task:challenging for several reasonsKey skill:-summarising and evaluating given texts-adding own ideas

Engaging in critical thinking-discussion questions as pre-task; sensitising students to opinions- what might be evaluated in given texts

Leading questions:

Some people think that cinema has the power to take us

out of the everyday experience. It is magical. It helps us

to escape our problems and concerns for a little while.

What do you think?

Some people say that with improvements in technology, the

viewer experience has been enhanced. In other words,

cinema is a more special, magical experience than in the past.

What do you think? / What would the counter-argument be?

Leading questions:

Some people believe that cinema has the power to tackle

issues in society- to comment on and help shape- our

attitudes and views on them. War, poverty, equality, for

example.

What do you think?

Cinema is Magic

Mean Girls

Any Given Sunday

Good Will Hunting

Ideas for speaking:

-making ‘meaningful’ speaking tasks- personalization

-presentations

-acting-role-play

-negotiation- tasks

Open/semi-open questions

Target language Bingo

Pass the baton questions; referring to partner’s questions;

• What is the value of coming second?

• Many people feel that competitive games should be discouraged in schools.

• What do you think?

• How can a rivalry be productive for individuals?

• Some people say that fairness in sport is unattainable.

• What do you think about this?

Mini-Presentations

Any Given Sunday

I don't know what to say really.Three minutesto the biggest battle of our professional livesall comes down to today.Eitherwe healas a teamor we are going to crumble.Inch by inchplay by playtill we're finished.We are in hell right now, gentlemenbelieve meandwe can stay hereand get the shit kicked out of usorwe can fight our wayback into the light.We can climb out of hell.One inch, at a time.

Interview with a Caveman

Adapted from CPE Testbuilder, Harison, Mark, Mac Millan 2015

Game Plan

Build a Bridge